Step 9 and The Northridge Group Announce New Access Management Application

Unique software solution allows carriers product management, sales, provisioning, and finance teams to manage access costs and thereby increase margins.

McLean, VA (PRWEB) May 22, 2003 -- Step 9 Software Corporation, a leading provider of order management, fulfillment and customer service management, and The Northridge Group, Inc. (NRG), specialists in business planning and optimization for telecommunications carriers, today announced a new software application called Telecom Access Manager. Created to proactively manage and control access costs, the web-based software service enables carriers to instantly compare alternative dedicated access costs for a given end customer, including dedicated access, UNEs, EELs, CAPs, or a carriers own negotiated rates. The software also accounts for different term plans, service types, geographic regions, and service configurations

Sue Platner, NRG President and COO, explained the advantage of understanding and managing access costs. Access costs remain the largest single cost for a telecommunications carrier. Optimizing access costs across all potential delivery methods is the new frontier among competitive telecom carriers. Current economic conditions dictate an increased focus on aggressively managing costs. Telecom Access Manager enables a carrier to manage those costs and optimize its gross margins. A small change in a carriers access costs can often create a significant increase in margins."

Being able to compare and choose alternative access methods accurately is a great benefit for a carriers sales, finance and provisioning areas," said Michael Rowny, CEO of Step 9 Software. Inflexible access policies do not work well in todays dynamic regulatory and pricing environment. Carriers must be able to proactively select the lowest cost access while delivering services to their customers."

Telecom Access Manager is available in an easy-to-use, web-based format. It also is an integral part of the One-to-One Service Delivery", Step 9s enterprise software matching each end customer to the lowest cost of access from order entry, order management, customer management, through fulfillment. One-to-One" can integrate easily with existing OSS systems.

About Step 9 Software Corporation
Step 9 Software Corporation, a privately held company based in McLean, VA, provides software solutions that accelerate profitable revenue growth, lower the cost of customer acquisition and plays a key role in customer retention strategies. Step 9 solutions
increase margins by managing customers, products, incidents and access
costs. The applications iCustomer SDX and iCustomer CSE are built on the scalable iCustomer architecture, a robust web environment that simplifies implementation and increases usability. For more information, visit www.step9.com.

About The Northridge Group, Inc.
The Northridge Group, Inc. (NRG), a privately held company based in suburban Chicago, provides consulting services and interim resources to the telecommunications and technology industries. Founded in 1999 by veteran industry executives, NRG's consulting professionals apply an average of nearly 20 years experience to helping companies build new organizations, manage interim teams, design revenue generating programs, and identify trends to increase market share. NRG's industry leading CLEC services and business tools enable clients to increase revenues while improving margins. For more information, visit www.northridgegroup.com.

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